Two Can Play (Celeste and Dominic) novel Chapter 310

Chapter 310

“Dominic Ford,” I said, shaking my head slowly from side to side, “you were supposed to leave for work an hour ago. Your driver has been waiting outside since seven. Your chief operating officer has called your phone twice. I heard it vibrating on the nightstand.”

“I turned it off.”

“You turned off your phone.”

“Completely.”

“The billionaire Dominic Ford turned off his phone on a weekday morning.”

He shrugged, a gesture so casual and so unrepentant that I could not help the laugh that bubbled up from somewhere deep in my chest. “For you, Celeste, I am willing to be late to work for the rest of my life. Let the board of directors fire me. Let the shareholders revolt. Let the stock price plummet. None of it matters. This, right here matters. Watching you put on your lipstick matters more than every business meeting I have ever attended.”

“That is absurd.”

“That is love.”

“That is financial irresponsibility, is what that is.”

He laughed then, a genuine laugh that transformed his entire face, and for a moment I forgot that there was a driver waiting outside, forgot that Helix had samples that needed processing, forgot that I was still technically married to a man whose face I never wanted to see again, forgot everything except the sound of Dominic Ford laughing in the morning light that streamed through the floor-to-ceiling windows and painted golden rectangles across the dark hardwood floor.

“I want to tell you something.” His voice had shifted, the playfulness receding slightly, replaced by something more earnest, something that made his eyes look deeper and more serious than they had been a moment ago. “I want to say thank you.”

I tilted my head, my hand still resting on the edge of the vanity. “Thank me for what?”

“For being in my life.” He said it simply, without flourish. Just the truth, laid bare between us like an offering.” For giving me a chance. For choosing me, Celeste. In the end, you chose me, and I don’t think I will ever stop being grateful for that.”

I reached up and cupped his face in both my hands, feeling the slight roughness of his jaw beneath my palms, the warmth of his skin, the steady pulse of his heartbeat that I could feel through my fingertips. “It was not as though there was a better option than you.”

His brows drew together, a crease forming between them. “If someone better ever came along, does that mean you would leave me?”

“What kind of question is that?”

“A serious one.”

“Dominic.” I pressed my palms more firmly against his cheeks, tilting his face down so that his eyes met mine directly, so that there could be no mistaking what I was about to say. “How could that ever happen? In my eyes, you are the best man who has ever walked into my life. No one else could ever be better than you, because there is no measurement, no scale, no universe in which anyone else compares. My eyes will only ever look at you. Do you understand what I am telling you?

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Choosing you was not settling. Choosing you was not the safe option or the convenient option or the option that made the most sense on paper. Choosing you was the first time in my life I ever felt like I had actually won something. Like I had finally, against all odds, hit the jackpot. And Dominic, money has absolutely nothing to do with what I just said.”

He pulled me into his arms before I could draw another breath, wrapping himself around me with a ferocity that knocked the air from my lungs, his face buried in the curve of my neck, his hands pressed flat against my back and I felt the words before I heard them, felt them vibrate through his chest and into mine.

“I love this woman to the sky and beyond.”

I closed my eyes and let myself sink into him, breathing in the scent of his cologne, something warm and woody with an undercurrent of spice that reminded me of cedar and sandalwood and the faint, intoxicating trace of something I could never quite identify but always, always associated with him. His arms tightened around me, and when I tried to pull away, he refused to let go.

“Where do you think you are going?”

“I have to finish getting ready. The samples from Pat’s collection are waiting, and I have a meeting with the research team later, and I haven’t even looked at my emails since yesterday afternoon, which means there are probably about a hundred of them waiting for me.

“None of that is more important than this.”

“Dominic.”

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